Abstract

Language as identity - the 'German' Afrikaans speaking community in Philippi

How did it happen that a community speak Afrikaans, yet they are not "Afrikaners", nor identify themselves with being "Afrikaans"? The home language of the descendants of the German settlers from the mid to late nineteenth century at Philippi on the Cape Flats is mainly Afrikaans, yet they are not "Afrikaners" nor "Afrikaans". Over almost one and a half century the community's traditions and their Lutheran denomination determined their identity, although their language has changed from German and the dialect Lower German to Afrikaans. The change is ascribed to, among other things, the influence of the Dutch farmers in the vicinity, and Dutch-Afrikaans as the lingua franca in the Western Cape in the nineteenth century, but also the similarities between Dutch and Lower German.